Everyone knew Lily only married me to spite her first love. For five years of marriage, she played the role of a caring wife to a renowned cardiologist in public. But behind closed doors, she was cold as ice towards me and brought up divorce countless times. Later, when her first love returned to the country due to illness, Lily took meticulous care of him. She even warned me repeatedly: “Ethan’s heart condition is fragile. If you dare show your face around him, you’ll have hell to pay!” Finally, when she brought up divorce for the hundredth time, I agreed. What Lily didn’t know was that I had cancer and was dying. On the way to file for divorce, I got into a car accident. Lily never saw me arrive, but she did receive news that a matching heart donor had been found for Ethan. She rushed back to the hospital in excitement, personally performed the autopsy, and transplanted the heart into Ethan’s body. It was only afterwards that she remembered about our divorce plans, but by then my phone would never ring again…
The moment my soul left my body, the unbearable pain finally subsided. I floated above, watching the smoking wreckage of my car in the pouring rain. The driver’s side was severely deformed from the impact, and the person in the seat was unrecognizable, their bones completely dislocated. Today was my fifth wedding anniversary with Lily. It was also the hundredth time she had brought up divorce. In the past, I always avoided the topic to maintain our fragile relationship. But this time, I agreed to the divorce. Our relationship hadn’t been great these five years, but we had still spent day and night together for so long. Until a month ago, when Ethan, the man she loved but couldn’t have, returned to the country due to illness. Not only did Lily stop coming home altogether, but she also took meticulous care of him at the hospital. Everyone knew she had married me just to spite Ethan back then. But I had loved her secretly for years, so even knowing this cruel truth, I remained devoted to Lily. I watched as the ambulance from First People’s Hospital took away my mangled body, and for some reason, I followed. Lily worked at this hospital. For years, she had been a renowned cardiology expert. But as the spouse of a top doctor, I couldn’t even get treatment from her for minor ailments. Because on our wedding day, Lily had coldly told me: “I don’t want to see you at my workplace.” “And I especially don’t want you bothering me over trivial matters.” So even when I was diagnosed with cancer, I still hadn’t found the chance to tell her. Thinking of this, a dense, gnawing pain spread through my heart. My bloodied corpse wasn’t taken to the morgue, but instead to the operating room on the fifth floor. Just then, the door to the operating room opened. Two people walked in, one after the other. “Ethan, it’s illegal to harvest a heart without the family’s consent…” I recognized the person speaking – it was Andy, Lily’s apprentice. I had often brought Lily meals over the years, and this guy had eaten plenty of them. Then I heard Ethan snort coldly, crossing his arms as he walked up to my cold corpse. He looked down at me briefly before quickly turning away, unable to hide the disgust in his eyes. “I’ve waited so long to finally match with a donor. How could I possibly let this chance slip away?” He turned to Andy indifferently: “Call Lily back.” “I want her to personally remove the heart and perform my surgery.” Andy looked at him hesitantly, starting to speak several times before stopping himself. Ethan wasn’t in a hurry. He took out a card from his bag and handed it to Andy. “There’s $50,000 on this card. This stays between us.” “Even if the family comes looking later, I have ways to deal with it.” Tempted by the money and Ethan’s assurances, Andy finally took the card and dialed Lily’s number. After a series of mechanical rings, Lily’s voice filled the operating room. “What is it?” Andy paused, looking up at Ethan before slowly replying: “Dr. Lu, we’ve found a matching heart donor for Mr. Song.” “The body is in the operating room. Please come back quickly.” Hearing this, Lily’s previously indifferent tone became excited, as if she had won the lottery. “Really?! I’ll be right there!” “Ethan won’t have to worry about this anymore…” Her incredibly excited voice felt like daggers stabbing into my heart. I looked at my corpse on the operating table through tear-filled eyes. If Lily knew it was me who had died, would she still be so happy?
In less than half an hour, Lily was back. She hugged Ethan, who was waiting for her in the hallway, breathlessly saying: “Ethan, you’re finally going to be okay.” Hearing this, Ethan’s eyes also reddened as he said: “Lily, if it weren’t for you, I’d rather give up this heart…” Hearing this, Lily hugged Ethan tighter and couldn’t help kissing him lightly before solemnly saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely divorce Adam.” “I… I only married him because I was angry at you in the first place.” When this widely known fact came from Lily’s own lips, my heart still couldn’t help but ache. So this was how much she loved Ethan. So after five years, I still hadn’t been able to melt this iceberg. While I was lost in thought, Lily had already comforted Ethan and told him to prepare for surgery. She then went into the operating room with Andy. For Lily, harvesting a heart was a simple procedure she could do with her eyes closed. But when she saw the blood-covered body on the operating table, she still couldn’t help but frown: “Andy, why didn’t you clean him up before bringing him here?” Andy froze, too nervous to look at Lily. In the end, he could only stammer, “Dr. Lu, Mr. Song’s donor was so hard to find.” “And isn’t this to ensure the heart stays fresh?” Hearing this, Lily said no more. She reached out to take the scalpel Andy handed her. Just as she was about to make the incision, she paused again. I followed her gaze and realized Lily was looking at my hand. On the ring finger of my left hand, a diamond ring was stained with dark red blood. I had designed this ring myself and had made a matching women’s wedding band for Lily when we got married. But she had disdainfully locked it away in a drawer and never taken it out again. “Dr. Lu, what’s wrong?” Andy looked at her in confusion. Lily shook her head, but when she spoke again, her voice carried a hint of pity. “What a pity. His husband must be devastated,” she said as she cut open my chest cavity. Andy stood beside her, handing her tools while replying: “And after examination, this gentleman also had cancer.” “It really is quite sad.” This time Lily didn’t respond, but the atmosphere in the operating room became even heavier than before. I watched her from afar, suddenly remembering how last winter I had come down with a terrible fever. I was so weak I couldn’t even get out of bed. Lily was home at the time, but she was only focused on her own work. I burned with fever all night until I was finally rushed to the hospital. The doctors said I had nearly died. But when I woke up, the first thing Lily did was berate me. “You’re a grown man! Couldn’t you have said something if you weren’t feeling well?!” She glared at me, her eyes full of anger. “Or were you just trying to use this to get my attention?” At the time, I was too weak to argue with her. She had clearly told me not to bother her even if I wasn’t feeling well. I had listened to her so obediently, so why was she still angry? And now Lily could feel sympathy for a complete stranger, so why had she been so cold to me, her husband of five years?
The heart was successfully removed. Six hours later, it began beating again. Except this time, it was inside Ethan’s body. As soon as Lily left the operating room, she went straight to Ethan’s room. Seeing him lying there sleeping peacefully, she finally let out a long sigh of relief. After checking on Ethan, Lily returned to her office. She sat down and took out her phone, but there were no messages. In the past, I would have sent her hundreds of messages every day, sharing every little detail about what I ate, what I did, how work was going. But Lily never replied to me. She stared at her phone for a long time before finally opening her contacts and scrolling to my name. She hesitated before dialing. But the mechanical ringtone just kept ringing and automatically hanging up. No one ever answered on the other end. Finally, Lily lost patience. She opened WeChat and tapped on our conversation, irritably sending two voice messages. “Adam, you already agreed to the divorce, so whether you answer the phone or not won’t change my mind.” “Don’t think playing hard to get will make me change my mind about divorcing you!” I watched her angry expression and smiled bitterly, murmuring, “Lily, if you hated me so much, why did you marry me in the first place?” But it didn’t matter anymore. The husband she despised had died in today’s downpour. Lily would never have to be bothered by me again. For the first time, Lily’s messages went unanswered. I had vanished without a trace. But she didn’t look for me, because she was convinced I was just sulking, that I was hiding because I didn’t want to divorce her. My body lay unclaimed in the hospital morgue. The reason was simple – I was an orphan. After leaving the orphanage, getting into a top design school was probably one of the most praiseworthy things in my life. The other was marrying Lily. In college, she wasn’t just the medical school beauty queen but also the top student. She was the unattainable dream girl for many guys. But back then, Lily only had eyes for Ethan. Even I, from a neighboring school, knew about their romantic love story. The first time I saw her was at an inter-school mixer. In the sea of people, Lily stood out in an expensive designer dress, confidently holding court. She was surrounded by admirers, but no one could outshine her brilliance. Later, when I got drunk, it was Lily who came over with hangover medicine. For the first time, my dull heart experienced the flutter of butterflies. But I knew the vast difference in our backgrounds. Plus, she had a boyfriend, so I kept that fondness locked away in my heart. It’s laughable, really. Those who crawl out of the mud always foolishly yearn for things far beyond their reach. I thought that would be my only interaction with Lily. Until she broke up with Ethan. By chance, I was delivering some custom buttons to her friend. On that sunny day, she looked up at me carelessly and asked, “Will you marry me?”
“Adam still hasn’t answered the phone?” In the hospital room, Ethan looked at Lily with a pale face. A moment later, he asked sadly, “Lily, after five years of marriage, did you really never have any feelings for him?” “Is his disappearance just you lying to me? You actually… don’t want to marry me at all.” “You never forgave me for leaving you back then!” By the end, Ethan was crying heartbrokenly. After these days, my emotions had strangely stabilized. I was now leaning against the window, quietly watching them. I guessed Lily would embrace him tenderly and comfort him. Sure enough, a moment later, she frowned and stood up, pulling the agitated Ethan into her arms. See? I guessed right. “Adam already agreed to divorce me. I don’t know why he suddenly lost contact.” She said, gently patting Ethan’s back to comfort him, then softly continued, “But don’t worry, I will divorce him.” “And I will marry you.” Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached. Two uniformed police officers burst into the room. Lily looked at them in confusion. “Officers, is something wrong?” Before the police could answer, the door was flung open again. Andy stood there, panting heavily. He looked up at Lily with trembling eyes: “Dr. Lu… Mr. Chen is dead…” [CUT-OFF POINT] Hearing this, Lily froze, looking at Andy in confusion. “Who did you say is dead?” “Mrs. Chen, we came today to inform you of this matter.” The police officer naturally took over, sighing as he pulled up a video on his phone and handed it to Lily: “A week ago in the morning, your husband Adam Chen was driving when he collided with a large bus.” “The scene was horrific. Your husband died instantly.” “To better determine responsibility, we sent the body to your hospital, but no one ever claimed it…” The video was playing on the phone, and I clearly saw Lily’s face turning deathly pale. This was the first time I had ever seen such an expression on her face. The room suddenly became deathly silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Until Andy slowly walked up to the stunned Lily and gripped her shoulders: “Dr. Lu, the body you personally cut open that day was Mr. Chen.” “He was found to have cancer after death… his body is still in the morgue…” With a thud, the phone fell to the floor. Lily’s pupils constricted as she stared at Andy in disbelief. “You’re saying… that person was Adam?” This time it was Andy who fell silent, his eyes red and expression complex. I imagine his feelings must be very complicated, after all, he and Ethan had taken my heart without anyone’s consent. I used to treat Andy quite well too. Without waiting for anyone’s response, Lily suddenly bolted out of the room like a madwoman. Andy snapped out of it and quickly followed. Only a bewildered Ethan was left behind. The elevator was stuck on the top floor and wouldn’t come down, so Lily chose to run down the stairs from the 16th floor. She ran so fast she even missed a step and tumbled down the stairs. “Dr. Lu!!!” Andy hurried forward to help Lily up, but she shoved him away. Lily’s forehead was bleeding from the fall, but she quickly got up and sprinted towards the morgue on the second basement level.
I followed behind them, watching all this impassively. I didn’t understand why Lily was reacting so strongly after hearing the news of my death. Could it be that she was so happy this annoying pest was finally dead that she was overjoyed? Soon Lily reached the entrance of the morgue. She suddenly became extremely calm, slowly walking up to the row of freezers and stopping. Andy caught up, looking at her hesitantly several times before finally raising his hand to point at one of the freezers in the middle row. “Dr. Lu… Mr. Chen’s… body is here.” I floated over to stand beside Lily. She lowered her eyes to look at that spot, raising a trembling hand to grasp the handle. But she didn’t pull it open right away, just staring at it silently. I looked at her bloodless face and couldn’t help but quip: “Don’t tell me you’re so happy to hear I’m dead that you don’t know how to react?” After all, now that I was dead, there would be no one to bother her anymore. She could marry Ethan without any obstacles. The star-crossed lovers could finally be together. Thinking of this, I couldn’t help but curse. “Lily! I’ve been with you for five years, you weren’t even with Ethan for that long!” “If you don’t shed a single crocodile tear when you see me, I’ll become a vengeful ghost and haunt you forever!” I shouted loudly by her ear, but of course Lily couldn’t hear me. With a click, the freezer was pulled open. Accompanied by a gust of cold air, my battered body finally appeared before Lily’s eyes. The sight was so gruesome it made even Andy suck in a sharp breath. Lily suddenly collapsed to her knees, staring fixedly at my corpse. She began to tremble uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face like a broken dam. I was stunned. I never expected her to be this kind of person, still putting on an act of deep love in front of others even after I was dead. Before I could puzzle it out, I saw Lily’s shaking hand slowly reach towards my head. But she stopped a few centimeters away. Seeing her like this, I sighed helplessly. It made sense – my skull was completely shattered. Even though it had been pieced back together, my head still looked dented and horrifying. It was natural she couldn’t bring herself to touch it. But the next second, a heart-wrenching wail suddenly rang out in the silent morgue. “Adam!!!” Lily cried out, throwing herself onto me, repeating over and over, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” My heart seized, my eyes stinging inexplicably. “Your acting is pretty good. I never realized you were such a good actress before.” Andy hurriedly crouched down and pulled the distraught Lily away from me with all his strength. “Dr. Lu! We barely managed to reconstruct Mr. Chen’s body to look like this. You can’t touch him!” Sure enough, when I looked over again, the corpse that had somewhat held its shape before had now fallen apart. Lily’s eyes were brimming with tears as she stared at the body in the freezer, murmuring, “This isn’t real… you must be tricking me, right?” “I know you always liked to use little tricks to get my attention, but Adam, can you not joke like this?” “Wake up… please wake up…” Lily was crying inconsolably, curled up in Andy’s arms and clutching his collar so tightly it seemed she might faint at any moment. Seeing this, Andy’s eyes reddened too, but he still calmly told Lily: “Mr. Chen is really dead!” “Dr. Lu… my condolences…” “It’s impossible!” Lily shouted, violently pushing Andy away. “He loved me so much, how could he bear to leave me?” “He can’t be dead… this must be a dream…” She said this as she sank to her knees in front of me, carefully raising her hand to grasp my left hand. “Adam, wake up.” “I’ll never bring up divorce again. We’ll live well together from now on.” “Please…”
In the end, Lily fainted from the emotional turmoil. I floated into her hospital room, sitting quietly on the far couch and watching her. Strangely, I felt a kind of inexplicable satisfaction. When I first had the accident, I had hoped she would quickly find me and bring me home. But then I watched with my own eyes as she cut out my heart and put it in Ethan’s body, and later showed such indifference to my disappearance. For the first time, I truly understood what it meant for one’s heart to turn to ashes. People often say that even raising a dog for a long time will create emotional attachment. But Lily was truly heartless towards me. Then again, she didn’t love me, so of course she could be so cold. Lost in thought, Ethan entered the room. Still in his hospital gown, he sat by the bed looking haggard and nervous. Soon after, Lily woke up. “Lily! You’re finally awake.” Ethan said excitedly, throwing himself onto Lily and choking up, “I know his sudden death is hard for you to accept right now.” “But if you think about it, this is actually a good thing! There won’t be any more obstacles between us.” “My illness was cured because of Adam’s death. You should be happy for me!” Lily didn’t answer Ethan. She suddenly shoved him away, throwing off her blanket and stumbling towards the door. Seeing this, Ethan quickly got up and grabbed Lily, anxiously asking: “Where are you going?!” “I’m going home…” she mumbled, walking out on her own, still muttering, “Adam is waiting for me at home.” “If I don’t go back soon he’ll definitely get angry and ignore me.” Hearing her words, Ethan’s face went white. He let go of Lily’s hand in shock.
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